


Parallel

by yeaka



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Episode: s02e15 Journey to Babel, F/M, M/M, Multi, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:50:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21837760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Amanda suggests Sarek get over it.
Relationships: Amanda Grayson/Sarek, James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 22
Kudos: 260





	Parallel

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

The quarters they’re given are nice enough, even a little warm—pre-adjusted for the Vulcan climate. Amanda’s long since grown used to sweating. She moves slowly about the room, eyeing its sleek lines and modern architecture, more out of an interest for how her son lives than for her own comfort. He never sends pictures home of his new life. Sarek gravitates towards the desk, taking his seat behind the console. Before he can find some inane thing to research, she asks, “Are we going to talk about it?”

“What do you mean?” Sarek asks. Their bond has been somewhat slack lately—it isn’t so easy to probe each other’s thoughts. They were never truly _in each other’s heads_ outside of contact, but there was a time when she could push a sentiment forward, and he would know it in a heartbeat. He’s definitely hiding something from her, but she chalks that up to Vulcan pride. He would deny its existence, of course, but as soon as they heard the Enterprise would be the ship to ferry them to Babel, she knew that this would happen. 

She turns to him and clarifies: “Our son.”

Sarek pointedly doesn’t look up at her. He doesn’t summon any images to the computer screen, but he faces it as though he will the moment she drops her line of questioning. After a poignant pause, he stiffly provides, “He seems to have done well for himself, but I see no reason why he cannot return to Vulcan.”

She almost laughs. “Really, Sarek? You can’t see it?”

Sarek finally glances over at her, even lifting a brow. For a man so incredibly intelligent, he can be startlingly _obtuse_ sometimes.

So Amanda spells it out for him. “He’s quite obviously in love with his captain.”

The second brow joins the first, high up Sarek’s forehead. He doesn’t even allow time to process the information before jumping straight into denial. He insists, “That is not the case.”

“I’m certain it is.”

“It would be thoroughly inappropriate.”

“Like a Vulcan falling for a human woman?”

Sarek gives her a stern look, unmoved by their own history. “Amanda, James Kirk is his _captain_. They are both senior officers aboard a Starfleet ship. _Any_ measure of a non-professional relationship would be ill advised.”

Amanda is quite certain several of Sarek’s relatives will have told him the same thing about marrying a human. Yet he did, and she knows he’s never truly regretted it. She can see that same stubbornness in their son. She tells her husband, “I think it’s a rather large measure. I can see the love in both of their eyes when they look at one another. Frankly, I’m surprised you missed it.”

Of course, he won’t admit he’s missing anything. He tells her, “You are imagining it.”

A few short steps is all it takes to put her next to him. She stands above him, looking down at his handsome face, remembering the way he looked so many years ago when they first became engaged. People also advised her against marrying a ‘cold computer,’ but she followed her heart and has never looked back. She presses her warm palms against his warmer cheeks. She murmurs, “I know what a Vulcan looks like when they’re in love, husband. Our son is _in love_. And I’m positive that he’s loved in return, by a fine, impressive young man we may as well welcome to our family. We should be happy for both of them.”

One of Sarek’s hands lifts onto hers. It presses gently, not tempting their bond, but still tantalizing for what it is. Contact with him is always electric, even after so many years. Yet he’s such a difficult man, and he argues, “Spock can find a nice Vulcan woman on Vulcan.”

She sighs. Sometimes, she really doesn’t know what to do with him. “Sarek. He will not leave that man’s side no matter what you say. You’ve well and truly lost that battle, so you might as well lose gracefully.”

He frowns up at her. She doesn’t waver. When he holds fast, she ducks down to brush a kiss over his mouth—a _human_ intimacy that she knows he’s come to love. When she withdraws, she chides, “You should understand a forbidden love well enough.”

His eyes flare. She knows he still doesn’t accept that. But he’ll have to, sooner or later, and Amanda’s quite sure that by the end of their trip, even he will see what’s so obvious to everyone else aboard.

In the meantime, she gives him another kiss, and Sarek, for all his Vulcan logic, kisses her right back.


End file.
